


Road Dogs

by HectorRashbaum (FifteenDozenTimes)



Category: Disney RPF, Jonas Brothers
Genre: M/M, Road Trip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-01
Updated: 2009-08-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 15:10:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FifteenDozenTimes/pseuds/HectorRashbaum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zac and Kevin drive across the country and act like dorks, get lost, figure some stuff out, and act like dorks. Not necessarily in that order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Road Dogs

"So I just spent a year traveling back and forth across the country. And now I have a whole bunch of time to spend in one place. And you want me to spend more of that time than I have to...traveling."

Zac just grins that stupid charming grin at him; Kevin knows when he's beat.

\- - - - - -

Kevin generally tries to control his more dorky urges around Zac, at least the ones he _realizes_ are dorky, but this whole thing was Zac's idea, and he was the one who wouldn't let Kevin change the radio station so he made his own bed here. And if Kevin knocking three times on the ceiling (if you want me) and twice on the steering wheel (if the answer is no) (there aren't any pipes in reach) is what makes Zac regret the stupid road trip idea, so be it.

Instead, by the second chorus Zac is banging away on the ceiling right with him, although he can't reach any pipes either and he's not obnoxious enough to bang on the steering wheel while someone else is driving so it's the window for him. And it's _impossible_ not to smile during a goofy car sing-and-dance-along, especially when someone so...not-goofy is so into it.

Okay, so Kevin might have to admit this isn't the worst way to spend a week.

\- - - - - -

The sing-along through West Virginia, and most of regular Virginia, is all John Denver, and Zac makes a mental note to click through that iPod when Kevin's showering so he can find any other state-related artists and begin to brace himself well in advance.

But seeing Kevin relaxed and happy, not worrying about getting a couple extra things done before Nick realizes they need doing and overburdens himself, or trying to keep Joe in check even while he doesn't really think "Disney would flip" is a good reason not to go be a reckless 19-year-old rock star, or trying to keep _himself_ in check 'cause he doesn't think he's good enough for the crowd he runs with, is totally worth some shitty music.

Kevin takes the next exit and glances over at him. "We need gas, and – what're you looking at me like that for?"

"Like what?"

"All...happy?"

Zac rolls his eyes, although with the sunglasses all Kevin sees is his smile getting even bigger. "Gee, Kev, I dunno. Why would I possibly look happy?"

And Kevin blushes that way he always does when he feels stupid, but now he's smiling, too. "Whatever. It's your turn to drive."

\- - - - - -

Kevin grew up with a certain understanding of the concepts of "sex" and "filth" – that more often than not, they went together, and that when filth was involved, sex was bad. It took maybe twenty minutes with Zac for him to realize he was probably taught this so he wouldn't spend his _entire life_ in bed, because most of the stuff they told him was filthy wasn't – and even the stuff that was...bad wasn't the word he'd use.

Zac draws everything out, makes him beg, makes him wait, moves so slowly Kevin memorizes every inch of his body and is pretty sure Zac does the same, tells him to be patient and uses words like "forever". When they finish, when Kevin can't move can't breathe can barely see, when the whole room smells like sex like Zac like _us_ and they're so wrapped up together he can't remember which limbs are his, he thinks they might have used up the entire week they set aside for the road trip.

Which is fine, because he's not really sure he can walk anywhere, so he can't get to the car anyway. And that's fine, 'cause he doesn't have the energy to get out of bed _to_ walk anywhere.

Kevin stopped wearing his purity ring a month ago, when he couldn't handle feeling like a hypocrite taking it off to have sex with Zac anymore. He had one brief crazy moment when he considered telling his family the entire truth – not just that he'd met someone, that they were really committed and he felt ready, but _who_ he'd met, that it wasn't a woman. That didn't last; he kept it vague and let them make their guesses. He's pretty sure Nick and Joe guessed right, but he doesn't feel a need to confirm that.

Zac helped him pick out the one he wears now, the one meant to keep nosy interviewers from asking questions that aren't anyone's business but that he'll be expected to answer anyway. He doesn't take it off, ever.

"I love you," Kevin mumbles, half-asleep already, into Zac's neck, because it's true and also because that's probably what he's supposed to say after the world's mushiest (well, not literally mushy) sex.

Zac kind of sort of mumbles something, and then snores.

\- - - - - -

"I got lost. Rescue me?"

Zac sighs and cradles the phone between his shoulder and ear so he can finish drying off and put his jeans on. "I told you to bring a map."

"I thought I remembered how to get to the coffee shop and back. But I wanted to look around a little, and I, uh, didn't pay enough attention, I guess."

"Which is why I told you to take a – shit." The downside to conveniently-small pocket-sized cell phones is how hard it is to get your shoulder up high enough to hold them to your ear for any length of time. But dropping it gave Zac an opportunity to do up his fly, so whatever. "Sorry."

"You never told me that. And I know. But. Rescue me?"

"Where are you?"

"Uh, a store? Lots of tacky sparkly things. Maybe I'll buy a cowboy hat. Cowboys and Angels, apparently. I bet I could make a bolo tie work. Or, I could convince Joe _he_ could make a bolo tie work."

Zac looks over the map _he'd_ been smart enough to grab and groans. "I think I can get to you in about six hours. Whatever, buy your cowboy crap and don't go anywhere else."

\- - - - - -

They leave Nashville mid-afternoon, and after matching cowboy hats for him and Zac, a bolo tie he can't decide whether to give to Joe or keep, a pair of pretty sweet cowboy boots, and a banjo (he's pretty sure he can find someone to teach him how to play, and it was next on his to-learn list anyway), Zac's looking at him a little funny.

"I guess you should be more careful where you plan stops," Kevin says, with a solemn nod. "Who knows what harm you've done to the Jonas Brothers sound?"

"You've already done the country thing, so no blaming me," Zac says, and glances around for onlookers before giving Kevin a quick kiss. "Now let's get going before you decide you need chaps to complete the look."

It's only two hours before they need gas, and they stop to eat at a kind of scummy-looking diner 'cause why not? Doing four states in the first day and staying in a fancy-pants hotel that's big enough to get totally lost in wasn't properly road-tripping, really, so they have to catch up.

Zac chokes on his too-strong too-hot coffee when Kevin's phone rings, that stupid High School Musical 2 song about Prince HumuHumuwhateverwhatever ringing into the diner.

"Are you serious?"

"Shut up. It's fun. Shut up."

_Do u even know how 2 play the banjo?_

"That's gonna be stuck in my head all day now. It took me a _year_ to get it out in the first place."

_I can learn. How'd u know?_ "You'll live."

"At least pick a song from one of the good ones. Or put it on silent if you're gonna keep talking back and forth. Who is that?"

"Nick. And I do have songs from the good ones. Assuming you mean 'good' in the relative sense."

"Now you shut up."

_U were spotted, lol. Already online. Nice hat._ "He likes my hat."

"I said put it on silent, my head's gonna explode. And that's great." Zac snatches Kevin's phone and starts clicking around; Kevin doesn't even bother to protest. "You're ridiculous. Who has their own music for a ringtone?"

"That's what happens when people keep stealing my phone. I think that's Joe's doing."

"You know you can _un_do that?"

"Yes. But this way he won't keep trying. What'd you do?" Kevin asks as Zac hands the phone back and their food finally comes.

"Nothing, I just wanted to see what plays when I call."

Kevin blushes and focuses on eating his burger

\- - - - - -

When Kevin comes out of the shower, Zac's got JONAS on tv, and he waits for the blush but Kevin just says something about how fun this episode was and starts digging around for his pajama pants.

"You know, I don't live that far from where you guys shoot."

"I know. I visited a couple times when you weren't busy, remember?"

On screen, show-Kevin sets up the problem for the episode by being a lot too nice and a little too stupid; Zac wonders (not for the first time) if they knew, right from the get-go, how important that dopey sweetness was to the real Kevin's charm, or if they had to figure it out as they went, if the character was supposed to be something else but there wasn't anything else he _could_ be but too good and too oblivious.

"You start up again in a month, right?"

Kevin finds his pants and changes right there; he used to get embarrassed about being naked in front of Zac. Even after they started fucking, he'd wrap up in a sheet to walk to the shower, or put his underwear back on, like he was in a movie and trying to keep the rating down. "Yep. If they give us too much of a break I might realize I'm too old to be in high school."

He grins at Zac and waits for the laugh, but Zac just sits up and looks at him, serious. "Move in with me."

Half-obscured by Kevin, there's a spit-take on the show, which doesn't do much to set the mood; Zac turns the tv off. Kevin just blinks at him, tilts his head, looks like a confused puppy and suddenly Zac is way less confident than when he decided to ask back at the diner a few hours ago.

"I – really?"

"If you want to, I want you there."

And the confusion turns to this big dopey, sappy smile, one of Zac's favorites, and Kevin's climbing on the bed, and it's too bad it took him so long to find those pants 'cause they're being tossed off the bed not long after that.

\- - - - - -

Sometimes, Kevin has the taste of a middle-aged woman in stretchy pants and a cat t-shirt. Which is awesome, because those women don't tend to be squealing Disney fangirls, and he can spend some time in relative peace. And Zac might not mind the badgering as much as Kevin, he appreciates a little peace as much as anyone. Plus, it gives him a chance to be a little brazen and walk more closely to Kevin than he might when they're being photographed, let their fingers brush every few steps.

So they end up spending a full day in some adorable little town in Arkansas, because when they stopped to get coffee in the morning, Kevin thumbed through a local paper and an antique shop caught his eye.

"We drove too much on the first day, anyway, we need a few adventures."

"This is an adventure?" Zac asks, but he didn't really sound reluctant.

Kevin nods, but doesn't say anything else until they're inside, until he's smiled and nodded at the sweet-looking old lady up front and they've wandered down a row of sturdy-but-dusty old furniture. "It's the kind of adventure," he says, "where it's kind of early, the lighting isn't great, the floor's so thumpy we can hear anyone coming a mile away, and we can be normal for a while."

He threads his fingers with Zac's, and gets a smile in return so bright the comment about the lighting doesn't really apply anymore.

"Anyway, most of your furniture is stupid, so this is as good a place as any to start."

"It is not," but Kevin's already dragging him along, and he's letting himself be dragged, and life is pretty awesome right now.

\- - - - - -

Kevin's been uncharacteristically quiet for the last half hour or so, and Zac's starting to see why he might've thought the road trip was a stupid idea, if this is what he pictured. He's picked up the iPod about thirty times in the last few minutes, can't find anything he's in the mood to listen to without Kevin's goofy singing, the road in front of him is stretching on endlessly, and he had to give up on conversation a while when it was either stop trying or punch the steering wheel in frustration.

They're stopping in Dallas for the night, Kevin's parent's house, and Zac assumes that's the cause of all this...but that's an hour away and he's _going_ to snap before then. So he pulls off at the next exit, mumbles something about gas even though they've still got plenty.

"I'm leaving you in Dallas if you keep this up, so start talking, Kevin."

Kevin shifts uncomfortably, looks like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, pulls out his phone and clicks a couple times before handing it over.

_Mom&amp;Dad asking about ur gf a lot. wanna meet her._

"He's been sending them all week. More today, they're probably driving him crazy. He offered to drop some hints about you, soften the blow, but...I dunno."

"I didn't know he knew."

Kevin shrugs. "I think he and Joe both figured it out. And I am...we're having a lot of fun pretending, that we can just, like..._do this_, that we can run around and be together and that me moving is just you asking and me moving and hey let's buy a bed in Bumfuck, and tra la la skip through the daisies."

This is where Zac starts to think that maybe they should call and tell Kevin's parents they'll hit Dallas tomorrow; they should get a hotel tonight, somewhere Kevin can freak out, because he's definitely freaking out – Kevin doesn't even swear when they're screwing.

"Kev - "

"So I get to either lie, or drop this massive stupid bomb that _shouldn't even be a bomb_ all at once, and I can't – this – I've been having _fun_. What the fuck. I can't – fuck."

Zac just nods, and reaches for Kevin's hand, and at least Kevin lets him take it, squeeze it gently. "Come on. We'll stay somewhere else tonight, you'll call Nick, hyperventilate, whatever, okay?"

"A road trip was a stupid idea."

"Maybe." Zac squeezes again, kisses Kevin softly, and wanders into the gas station to ask for directions.

\- - - - - -

"I just don't even know how you _hint_ about that, Nick, seriously. 'His girlfriend? Well, she might be a little more boy than girl, if you get my drift, ha ha ha.' Like, what would you - "

"Kevin? I hate to interrupt this freakout session to make you freak out, but you're a blind item."

"What?" Kevin flops down on the bed, tries to let the sound of the shower running calm him down a little. White noise, or something.

"This pure-as-the-driven-snow teen idol has the little girls screaming, but his eyes are only for the formerly mouse-eared pal he's been canoodling with across the country."

"Pretend you didn't say that. I can't go get sick right now, Zac's in the shower."

"If it helps, when I Google your name that doesn't come up until, like, page ten."

There are tears in Kevin's eyes, which makes him feel kind of stupid but fuck, he wasn't planning on coming out...ever? Ish? And who the fuck even says canoodling? Also, their dad is _going_ to see that, and -

"What do you want us to tell Dad?"

Kevin takes a shaky breath, another, and he _is_ going to be sick this is stupid and unfair and where did his soothing white noise go? Zac's phone is ringing in his bag across the room, the menacing DUN-DUN-DUNNN he uses for people he only talks to when he has to. Someone saw the blind item and connected it to him, probably. And that's hardly soothing. "I don't – shit. Fuck."

"Hey." The voice is in the wrong ear to be coming from the phone, and it's not Nick's, and there's a soothing warmth wrapped around him and oh, Zac's out of the shower. He takes the phone. "Nick, can you deal for ten minutes? He'll call you right back."

Whatever he says satisfies Zac, 'cause he shuts the phone and shifts to wrap around Kevin more comfortably. "Hey. Chill."

"Apparently we were caught canoodling."

Zac snorts a little, bites back a laugh. "No one says canoodling."

"Zac."

"I said chill. Lemme deal with this," he says, and wiggles up to go turn off his phone. Kevin focuses on breathing like a normal person and scoots up the bed to rest his head on the pillows so when Zac comes back over they can cuddle like slightly more normal people. Zac tosses the phone and slides up next to him in one fluid movement, 'cause Zac is cool and graceful and all sorts of awesome, and Kevin is lucky to have him and maybe the world's just balancing that out with all this suck.

"Okay, so some people do say canoodling. And that's nothing, Kev, really. We got snapped coming out of a couple hotels, probably by photographers working for the same people, they put two and two together. It's not like they have anything, we got rooms with two beds every time and as far as they know, we were just hanging out. You can't let stupid gossip throw you."

"I hate this," Kevin mumbles, and shifts, burrows his face into Zac's neck. He used the hotel's soap and doesn't smell right.

"I know." Zac sighs, shifts, combs through his hair. "I was gonna – I thought, a couple times, about coming out. Now that I wouldn't have to go to war with Disney about it, you know? But I – you'll have to deal with it too, and it has to be – I need you to be okay with it. But I need that out there, so you know. It's...on the table." Zac ruffles his hair, tugs his head up, gives him a quick kiss. "Call Nick. Whatever you wanna do, whatever you need to do, you guys figure it out, okay? I'll be here."

Kevin nods, but doesn't let Zac get up until he's kissed him hard, deep, slowly enough to make time stop; he waits to call Nick until the bathroom door clicks shut.

"I'll be home tonight. Just tell Mom and Dad...I need to talk to them, okay?"

"Are you..."

"Yeah. Um. Just...tell them."

\- - - - - -

Kevin's chewing his thumbnail when they pull onto the interstate, a faraway look in his eyes. Zac's starting to worry about two days of the silent treatment, desperate attempts to not go insane while Kevin does his best to drive him totally batshit, when Kevin slips his hand over to rest on Zac's knee.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Zac glances over and smiles, honestly relieved to see Kevin's smiling a little, too. "Nobody tried to kill me, or you, or threw anything at either of us, or cried, or said they never wanted to see anyone again, so...I think it went okay, yeah."

Kevin's smile brightened a little, and he switched out Zac's iPod for his own. "Then I guess this calls for a sing-along."


End file.
